Mesial temporal tau is related to worse cognitive performance and greater neocortical tau load in amyloid-β–negative cognitively normal individuals

Authors

Colin Groot
Vincent Doré
Joanne Robertson
Samantha C. Burnham, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Greg Savage
Rik Ossenkoppele
Christopher C. Rowe
Victor L. Villemagne

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Neurobiology of Aging

Volume

97

First Page

41

Last Page

48

PubMed ID

33130455

Publisher

Elsevier

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences / Centre of Excellence for Alzheimer's Disease Research and Care

RAS ID

39588

Funders

Funding information: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197458020302943?via%3Dihub#ack0010

Comments

Groot, C., Doré, V., Robertson, J., Burnham, S. C., Savage, G., Ossenkoppele, R., ... Villemagne, V. L. (2021). Mesial temporal tau is related to worse cognitive performance and greater neocortical tau load in amyloid-β–negative cognitively normal individuals. Neurobiology of Aging, 97, 41-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.09.017

Abstract

© 2020 Elsevier Inc. We examined whether mesial temporal (Me) tau relates to cognitive performance in 47 amyloid-β (Aβ)-negative, cognitively normal older adults ( > 60 years old). Me-tau was measured using [18F]flortaucipir–positron emission tomography standardized uptake value ratio. The effect of continuous and categorical (stratified at standardized uptake value ratio = 1.2 [21% Me-positive]) Me-tau on cognition (mini-mental state examination, pre-Alzheimer's cognitive composite, a memory composite, and a nonmemory composite score) was examined using general linear models, and associations between Me-tau and [18F]flortaucipir signal in the neocortex were assessed using voxelwise regressions (continuous) and voxelwise contrasts (categorical). In addition, we assessed the effect of age and Aβ burden on Me-tau. Both continuous and categorical Me-tau was associated with worse cognitive performance across all tests and with higher lateral temporal and parietal [18F]flortaucipir signal. Furthermore, we observed a marginal association between Me-tau and age, whereas there was no association with Aβ burden. Our findings indicate that Me-tau in Aβ-negative cognitively normal individuals, which is likely age-related (i.e., primary age-related tauopathy), might not be as benign as commonly thought.

DOI

10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.09.017

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